State of inertia

On July 14,1983,the Assam government appointed a commission of inquiry,chaired by Tribhuvan Prasad Tewary. It was mandated to look into the circumstances leading to the disturbances which took place in Assam during January to April 1983,to examine the measures taken by the concerned authorities to anticipate,prevent and deal with these disturbances,to indicate whether there were any failures by any authority or individual,and to suggest measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future.

The commission submitted its report in May 1984,detailing what happened during those four months of mayhem that included the Nellie massacre,in which more then 3,000 Bengali Muslims were estimated to have been killed the official count is 1,800.

The report was generally favourable to the Assam agitation and stopped short of recommending prosecution of those responsible for the massacre. Yet it provided insights into what led to the massacre; these findings,if addressed,could have helped prevent a recurrence.

The reason why the report was never made public was apparently to stave off the crisis facing the government after a massacre of such a scale. Any subsequent public debate on its findings would have made it difficult for the government to avoid action against the perpetrators.

The findings were based on the deposition of officials of the police,the CRPF,the district administration and civilian witnesses. It was critical of the government machinery,saying it didnt take necessary measures to prevent the massacre even though there had been information clearly pointing to such a possibility,and it didnt react even once information regarding the massacre reached it. This allowed the carnage to continue for eight hours.

For example,it details how a wireless message,sent to three police officers three days before the Nellie massacre,could have been used to prevent the massacre had they responded to it. A thousand Assamese people armed with deadly weapons are beating drums and have encircled Nellie where minority population is in panic,apprehending an attack, the wireless message had warned.

The commission questioned these three officers M N A Kabir who was commandant of Assam Police’s 5th Batallion and in charge of Morigaon; Pramode Chetia who was subdivisional police officer in Morigaon,and Bhadra Kenta Chetia,officer-in-charge of Jagiroad police station. None of the three admits having received it the wireless message before the event, the report says and terms their claims bewildering. The report notes that the commandant claimed the message was delivered to his wife in his absence,the SDPO said it was placed on his table while the OC claimed it was kept in his put-up basket.

Chapter closed

The report,which went beyond Nellie to other incidents of violence between January and April 1983,was submitted in May 1984. The Hiteswar Saikia government didnt table it in the Assembly. Neither did the Prafulla Kumar Mahanta government,because it had indicted the leadership of the Assam agitation. The report,accessed by The Indian Express,had held AASU and AAGSP an umbrella of various bodies including AASU primarily responsible,saying there is overwhelming evidence that arson,riots,destruction of public properties was organised and at extensive scale.

A Delhi-based research and advocacy group,Centre for Equity Studies,has procured a copy of the report from Assams home department after filing an RTI application. It conducted a recent study on mass violence,including the Nellie massacre and its aftermath,and detailed how those responsible were never tried.

It found that 668 FIRs were registered in relation to the violence in Nellie,recorded over the two months following the massacre. However,the Morigaon district administration has only been able to locate 525 FIRs,saying that the remaining 143 FIRs had most likely been damaged over time due to ‘lack of proper storage’, it says.

We learned that charges were filed in 299 cases,and the remaining cases were summarily closed. After the Assam Accord was signed in 1985,the Government of Assam petitioned to withdraw cases under section 321 of the CrPC,1973,in all the trial courts that had live cases,citing lack of evidence in all of these. The courts accepted the applications,and agreed to the discharge of all the accused.

It says we examined copies of 100 chargesheets from Nagaon district,and these are fairly detailed certainly,detailed enough to ground proceedings,had the state been willing. It says the government withdrew cases that were not summarily closed already even though the Assam Accord explicitly denied immunity to those accused of heinous crimes. Not only the police and prosecution,but the courts as well mechanically accepted a political mandate to close all cases,and failed to apply a judicial mind to the facts of each case,before deciding whether or not it deserved to be closed, the CES study says.

History of violence

Though the majority of those killed in the mass violence of 1983 were Muslims,the Tewary panel report said the roots of the strife in Assam are not primarily communal. The composite character of Assams population can be a great asset provided sectional interests are not pursued and communalism is not allowed to poison the minds of the people to the detriment of the whole society, the report says. The solution of the Assamese problem can be found only in a spirit of give and take and mutual goodwill.

The report goes back almost a century to say,The tension between the immigrants and the indigenous population has existed from the first decade of the century 20th,which had at times taken a communal colour. The tension between the Assamese and Bengali linguistic groups has existed for many years. The prevalence of a number of tribal groups also adds to the complexity of the situation.

The report cites cases of violence against Muslim immigrants in Goalpara and Cachar districts; the outbreak of violence over the states reorganisation in 1954 when 39 people were killed and 50,000 Bengali-speaking people displaced; large-scale disturbances in 1960 after the Assam Official Language Bill was introduced under which the Bengali Hindu community was the main sufferer; the riot targeting Marwari businessmen in 1968; and another language riot on the issue of the medium of instruction in 1972 in which 32 people were killed. It also refers to the riots in September 1978 during a Bordoloi Trophy match between Bangkok Port Authority and East Bengal when the latter’s players were targeted.

Quoting a state government memorandum,the report says the Assam agitation with its violent eruptions has taken various directions and engulfed various sections ethnic,religious and linguistic; Assamese,tribals,Muslims,Bengalis,Nepalese. The agitationists successfully drove home the idea to the rural people,mainly Assamese and tribals,that because of the immigrants,refugees and the Nepalese,the lands in Assam had been alienated to the non-Assamese and non-tribal people. Therefore,if these people could be driven out of the lands occupied by them,the lands so vacated would be available to the indigenous people, it says.

It should also be realised that no individual or group could be blamed for the policies pursued by the East India Company or the British Government or the Tea Planters or the Saadullah Ministry. Although history cannot be re-rolled,yet the people and the government have the capacity and the means to shape the present and the future in a manner which will promote unity and safeguard national security.

Total recall

18 Feb 1983 Bengali-speaking Muslims targeted in nellie in assam. armed Mobs surround 14 villages,torch their houses and massacre villagers.

8 hours The time the carnage lasted,starting from around 9 am.

3,000 estimated killed.

The official count is 1,800.

14 July 1983

Assam sets up Tribhuvan Prasad Tewary Commission to probe disturbances between January and April 1983. Report filed in May 1984.

2,072 people killed in Nellie and elsewhere as per official data between January and April 1983,period under panels review. 235 killed in police firing,14 government servants too killed

2,25,951 people left homeless

668 FIRs registered with Morigaon police. Many cases summarily closed. Following a govt plea after Assam Accord in 1985,all cases under section 321 of CrPC withdrawn from trial courts.

From the report of the Tewary Commission

Not communal

It is entirely unwarranted to give a communal colour to the incidents under enquiry… In some places the attackers were Assamese and the victims Bengali-speaking people,both Hindu and Muslim. In certain other places Muslims were attackers and the Assamese were the victims. In several areas,the clashes took place between the various sections of the Assamese themselves. In a few places Muslims joined hands with others in attacking their co-religionists. In Chowlkhowa,a section of the minority community joined hands in attacking the immigrants. There are Arno Chapori and Gohpur where the attackers and the victims both were members of the majority community.

Divisive trend

Quoting educationist Indira Miri,the commission says,Even if the problem of foreigners were solved,unless the process of disintegration is controlled,there would not be lasting peace in the Assamese society,which would adversely affect national unity. She said disintegration was not merely a product of the recent disturbances but she had found it growing in the earlier years also. In her view,education also has contributed to this divisive trend.

On infiltration

Various steps have been taken from time to time for the detection and deportation of foreign nationals and illegal migrants. Now the number of outposts manned by the BSF on the Assam border is 80… The Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal Act,1983,has come into force on 28th December,1983. Rules and guidelines were also framed and issued by the Government of India which were received by the state government in February 1984.

Bangladeshi immigrants

There is a clear distinction between the two types of migrants those who were helpless victims of historical imperatives and those migrants who came in search of land and better economic opportunities. It is an entirely secular and objective classification. Those who have been victims of persecution deserve all sympathy and support which has been the consistent national policy. In so far as the other category is concerned,the IMDT Act is expected to take care of them.

Help Assam

In the matter of search for opportunities,it has mostly been one-way traffic over the years. For more than a hundred years people from different parts of the country have been settling in Assam. The mobility of Assamese to areas outside Assam has been insignificant as also the inter-district mobility within Assam. We owe Assamese people the duty to accelerate the process of economic development.

Special status

Assam should be granted special protection as in Kashmir where no real estate can be acquired by or sold to an outsider. It is for consideration that even in regard to citizens of India,reasonable restrictions should be imposed to prevent transfer of immovable property into the hands of non-Assamese.